Canada confident it can handle the pressure against underdog Finns
Published
Team Canada did not skate on Saturday morning in Edmonton. Team Finland held an optional skate.
More than a year after the initial summer evaluation camp and eight months after COVID halted the tournament in December, Team Canada will finally play for a gold medal at the World Juniors.
"It's one of the biggest moments in my life," said defenceman Donovan Sebrango, who leads Team Canada in ice time. "You never know when you'll be back and getting to win a gold medal or winning anything in hockey. It's never guaranteed. So, today will definitely be a challenge and I can't wait for it."
"It's something every Canadian kid dreams about," captain Mason McTavish said. "This opportunity right now is special. We're pretty confident in our ability, but we're going to have to go out and prove it."
Canada has won all six games in Edmonton outscoring the opposition 38-12, but there's nothing like the pressure of a gold-medal game.
Team Canada coach Dave Cameron knows full well how quickly nerves can paralyze a team. He was also running the bench at the 2011 World Juniors in Buffalo when Canada squandered a 3-0 third-period lead and lost to Russia in the gold-medal game
"One of the things you can't practise is pressure," said Cameron. "You can talk about it all you want, the pressure of a game and the pressure of a shootout and all that, and you can practise it until hell freezes over, but you can't duplicate that pressure."
"We are underdogs so all the pressure is behind Team Canada," said Finnish head coach Antti Pennanen. "We are going to use that."
Sebrango, however, didn't seem too stressed.
"I slept like a baby last night," he said. "I had a great sleep and I'm ready to win gold today ... We've been getting ready for this moment so I believe in our team. I fully believe we'll come out on top."
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Canada beat Finland 6-3 in Monday's final game of the preliminary round.
"We have a good confidence [level] because we had our moments last time when we played against them," Pennanen said. "What we learned, I'm not sure how good their D-zone coverage [is] so we need to keep the puck and manage the puck."
McTavish revealed Team Canada has had meetings to address defensive-zone play since that game against Finland.
"The biggest thing is to be super dialled in and know what's going on," McTavish said. "We'll look to clean that up."
Pennanen believes if his team can score first that will put Canada under a level of stress that they have yet to really face in the tournament. Canada has only trailed once when Czechia scored first in a preliminary-round game.
"Our team's really confident," said McTavish. "We're going to look to come out real hard at the start. Last game against Finland we started a little slow against them so we'll look to change that."
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Dylan Garand is the only player back from the 2021 team that lost the gold-medal game to the United States inside the Edmonton bubble. The Kamloops goalie watched that championship game from the bench and learned a lot.
"I remember in the semifinals we played the Russians and we were really amped up and pumped and we beat them pretty good and we were on an emotional high," Garand said. "The next day you could sense some tenseness and nervousness with it being the gold-medal game. So, keeping an even mindset and not getting too high right now, even though we're where we want to be, is really important. You really can't focus on the outcome ... Focus on the process and the outcome will take care of itself."
Garand is happy with his focus right now.
"I was overthinking it a bit the past couple games and [on Friday] I really tried to just let that go and just work and play my game. I did a good job of that," he said. "I got to keep building on that."
"I know he's saving his best for [the gold-medal game]," said centre Logan Stankoven, who plays with Garand in Kamloops. "I can just tell. I just know that from past experiences. He always shows up in the big games."
In the aftermath of that devastating defeat to the Americans in 2021, Garand made a promise to Canada's starting goalie Devon Levi, who has become a good friend.
"I promised him I'd come back and win and [now] I have an opportunity to fulfill that," he said.
Saturday is a big day for the Garand family and not just because of the World Juniors.
"It's also my dad's birthday so it would be a pretty cool present to win the gold medal."
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Pennanen raised eyebrows by starting Juha Jatkola instead of Leevi Merilainen in the semifinal. Merilainen had started four of the five previous tournament games. Jatkola only played once and allowed three goals on 16 shots against Slovakia.
"It was kind of a hunch," Pennanen said.
The move paid off. Jatkola pitched a 23-save shutout against Sweden.
"He has been amazing during these two years and it wasn't a big surprise to me that he'd play like that," Pennanen said.
Jatkola may want to check in with Merilainen about what to expect from Connor Bedard in the gold-medal game. The 17-year-old phenom scored an amazing goal against the Finns in the preliminary round.
"I knew he was going to do the drag-and-shoot thing," Merilainen recalled a couple days ago, "but I didn't know it was going to come in that hard and get off that fast."
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The goaltending change wasn't the only gutsy move by Pennanen, who also decided to make Winnipeg Jets first-rounder Brad Lambert a healthy scratch.
"This has been a good learning process for him," Pennanen said, "how demanding these [games] are. Of course, he's a really talented hockey player, but he needs to understand how he can use his teammates more. That is the main thing."
Lambert has one goal and seven shots in five games in the tournament.
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Stankoven won 21 of 23 faceoffs in the semifinal game. Has he ever been on a heater like this?
"No, I don't think so," he said with a smile.
Stankoven credits assistant coach Louis Robitaille, who handles the pre-scout, for giving him an extra edge.
"He came over and showed me each centre and where they like to take draws and what their strong side is," Stankoven said. "I was prepared more than usual and it showed."
Stankoven doesn't do video work to prepare for faceoffs in the Western Hockey League.
"Louis came over to me and had the iPad out," Stankoven recalled. "He came over before warm-ups and showed me each guy and where they like to win it and I kept that in the back of my mind before each draw."
Stankoven leads the tournament with a 76.1 per cent win rate. No one else is above 64 per cent.
"It's why that line's dominating," said Cameron. "It's because they have the puck a lot and it starts with faceoffs. He was dialled in on that. The first nine or 10 he won outright, clean."
The video work helped Stankoven, but not fellow centre McTavish, who was at 44 per cent in the semifinal.
"Faceoffs, normally they're solid, but they [Czechs] did a good job," the Anaheim Ducks prospect said. "Their wingers were jumping and their centres were dialled [in]. I'll be looking to fix that."
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Team Canada winger Kent Johnson had one goal on a tournament-leading 30 shots entering Friday's semifinal game. Was he feeling due?
"Ah, yeah, definitely," the Columbus Blue Jackets prospect said.
Johnson fired five more shots on net and scored his second goal of the tournament during the win over Czechia.
"Would love to score a bit more and even more today but it's coming," Johnson promised after the game.
The goals may not be flowing like he wants, but Johnson is putting on a playmaking clinic. He had two assists on Saturday. On McTavish's power-play goal, Johnson froze everyone with a fake shot from the top of the slot.
"I just wound up for the slap shot and was kind of thinking about it," Johnson said, "but then I saw McTavish and happy he hammered it home. He doesn't miss many of those."
McTavish wasn't buying what his teammate was selling.
"I knew he was passing," McTavish said breaking into a smile. "Maybe he's just telling you guys to fake out one of these goalies he's playing next. I knew he was going to pass. I don't think he takes many slap shots. He was faking it and freezing the goalie and slid it over. It was a really good pass. I had an empty net to put the puck in."
McTavish broke a stick on a shot earlier in the shift and says equipment manager Chris Hamilton also deserves an assist on the play for handing him a new twig as he skated by the bench.
Johnson, meanwhile, also made a nice pass to spring Stankoven for a breakaway on another power play.
"He had two guys who were kind of going in on him and he made a beautiful behind the back play to chip the puck to the middle of the ice there," Stankoven said. "The things he does are crazy. He's pretty nifty."
"He's probably the smoothest player I've ever seen," Bedard said. "The way he can find seams and look guys off and stuff, it's pretty incredible."
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Bedard liked the chemistry on his new line with 6-foot-3 centre Nathan Gaucher and 6-foot-4 winger Will Cuylle.
"It was good," he said. "Two big bodies and just kind of following them around and hoping for pucks to get loose."
After being held without a point in the quarterfinals, Bedard responded with a goal on Friday.
"I got a good pass there from Gauch," Bedard said. "I was on that [off] side and saw a little room low glove there and luckily it went in."
The 5-foot-9 forward also threw a big hit in the third period.
"You got to pick your moments," he said. "I don't see myself as too big of a hitter, but it was a good time in the third there. They were pressing a bit so maybe create some energy. I think it was a good time."
Teammates loved it.
"The crowd gets pretty fired up for it," Johnson said. "He's a competitor too. He's not just a skill guy so it's good to see that from him."
"It builds momentum on our bench, believe it or not," said Brennan Othmann. "You don't see that very often, guys projected to go first overall throwing their weight around."
Bedard seems to have a knack for rising to the occasion as was the case during the gold-medal game at the 2021 under-18 World Championship in Texas. Canada fell behind 1-0 in that game against Russia and then Bedard missed a penalty shot.
"I was mad," Bedard recalled during a conversation with TSN last year. "I missed and there was 10 of these little Russian kids screaming at me so that definitely did fire me up. I didn't want to go out on that. The [Russian] goal before was probably my fault too so just a bad turn of events and I really wanted to get one."
Moments later he scored a brilliant backhand goal. Later in the game, Bedard set up Shane Wright for the empty-net goal to seal the gold-medal win. That experience will help Bedard on Saturday night.
"It kind feels like you've been there before," he said. "A lot of these guys were on the Hlinka team too in the '02 year where they unfortunately lost in the final, but they have that experience of getting to that gold-medal game."
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Cameron called his fourth line – Othmann, Zack Ostapchuk and Elliot Desnoyers – over for a chat at the end of Thursday's practice. The message?
"Be physical," Othmann revealed. "Be the energy line and get pucks behind their 'D' and show the other lines it's OK to get behind their 'D' and be physical and that's what we did. We stuck to what Dave said."
Othmann did such a good job annoying the Czechs that Michal Gut wanted a word with him in the handshake line.
"I don't think he liked the hits," Othmann said with a grin. "If you can't play with the big boys then don't come out."
The last two times Team Canada stood atop the podium at the World Juniors – 2020 in Ostrava and 2018 in Buffalo – it was a fourth-line forward who scored the winning goal in the gold-medal game.
"It obviously creeps into your mind," Othmann said. "You watch Akil Thomas and Tyler Steenbergen score those big goals and it's cool to see. I'm looking forward to an opportunity tonight. If it's scoring or if it's creating another big hit and momentum, either way, I'm going to make an impact tonight."
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Projected Team Canada lineup for the gold-medal game:
Roy - McTavish - Dufour
Johnson - Stankoven - Foerster
Cuylle - Gaucher - Bedard
Othmann - Ostapchuk - Desnoyers
Kidney
Sebrango -Zellweger
Del Mastro - Cormier
Seeley - Thompson
O'Rourke
Garand starts
Cossa
Injured: Greig
Scratches: Brochu, Lambos